Chevrolet bounced back from a difficult qualifying session last weekend in Slovakia to lock out the top three positions ahead of the ninth round of the 2012 World Touring Car Championship in Hungary.
Championship leader Yvan Muller secured his second Pole Position of the 2012 campaign having topped the times in both parts of qualifying. He is pleased to be in the ideal position for the first race of the day.
“It’s great to have such a good qualifying session and claim pole after the difficult qualifying we had inBratislava. It is never easy to drive a flawless lap on this circuit, but I more or less managed it and am very happy with the balance of the car. Tomorrow, we are ideally placed for Race 1, a little bit less for Race 2. But you never know what can happen.”
Team-mate Rob Huff lines up alongside Muller for the opening race of the weekend and is pleased with how his Chevrolet Cruze felt during the session.
“I’m very pleased with the result; it is good for the team. My lap wasn’t the best ever, but it was enough for second spot. The good news is that the car performs and feels well and I was able to go quicker and quicker, session after session,” explains Huff, who won his first race of the season last time out at the Slovakia Ring.
“Despite the heat, the tires maintained grip, possibly thanks the improvements made to the track. A number of corners have been resurfaced and the new tarmac is much smoother and faster. We improved by almost two seconds compared with last year’s lap times.”
Third on the grid is the third Chevrolet of Alain Menu, and he is disappointed with how his session went. The Swiss driver feels he should have been higher up the order for the opening race of the weekend.
“I am a little disappointed because I could have done better. I was the fastest in sector 2 during my best attempt, but then was involuntarily slowed by Engstler and this probably cost me second place on the grid. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I think tires can be an issue because of the warm weather,” added Menu.
With the drivers’ occupying the top three positions for the opening race, this leaves them on rows four and five for the reverse grid race.
The trio of Chevrolet drivers is within twenty nine points of each other in the drivers’ Championship and in the Manufacturers Championship; they hold a 126 point margin to SEAT Customer Teams’ Racing.